Raising Sheep and Natural Rhythms

• Starting with a flock of sheep suited to the environment and production year

• Building a flock of animals that are prime candidates for a natural grass based system with the goal to develop those genetics

• By selecting ewes and replacement ewe lambs who thrive on grass we will also be selecting for enhanced sheep health and disease resistance

• Lambing on pasture when there is an abundance of fresh grass to feed the ewes. If there is fresh grass it means the climate is warmer and that works in favour of the newborns

• Keeping ewes which are capable of raising lambs with ease and unassisted and who have the smarts to know which lambs are theirs

• Grazing sheep on grass for as long as possible every year. After the grass has become inaccessible finding ways to feed on pasture so animals remain there.

• Learn and utilize the benefits of raising sheep flocks on grass environments to improve upon our main resource, the grass

• Selecting sheep that are capable of finding shelter during poor weather. This is a learned survival trait that is taught to lambs

• Selecting for strong flocking instinct. This is one way sheep are able to protect themselves from predators such as the coyote

In a sense, sheep evolved this way. As a species they survived sufficiently enough without barns or two legged surrogate moms or even guardian animals. If sheep can do all of this then sheep ranching just got a little easier and possibly more profitable.

As our good friends taught us, always on our mind is how to make sheep work for us versus us working for the sheep.

This paradigm shift from working excessively hard to keep a ranch going, to making a ranch work for us, has had a tremendous impact on how we operate.

To get a sense of how a year of sheep production on grass plays out check out our pages on Year of the Sheep Flock on Grass

If you're looking for answers to more specific questions go to sheep raising FAQ's where you'll find answers to some of the more common questions.

Raising Sheep and Lambing

When you first approach the notion of raising sheep one of the first concerns often thought of is when and how will I manage lambing? What time of the year you wish your ewes to birth their young will factor into your approach and how lambing commences.

Lambing on pasture is a utilizing a natural approach while shed lambing is a semi-natural approach. Read a comparison of these two methods at winter and summer lambing. On the opposite hand, accelerated lambing is an intensive program that is quite divergent from natural.

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